Attorneys Representing Dog Attack Victims Across Texas

This website is maintained by the Law Offices of Dean Malone, P.C., a Dallas, Texas law firm representing people across Texas for dog bite injury cases. We have attempted to provide useful information for those harmed by animal attacks.

Posted on August 9th, 2017

White pit bull (Photo: Labeled for resuse)

On Tuesday, August 1, 2017, 20-month-old Paris Adams was mauled to death by two family pit bulls. Deputies received a call in Hart County, Georgia, at about 3:15 p.m. In the backyard of his home, the boy had been viciously attacked. According to Scott Boleman, Deputy Coroner, the toddler was transported to an emergency care center, where he went and pronounced the child dead.

The pit bulls lived indoors in the same home with Adams. The dogs were observed for a few days before being put down, according to Sheriff Mike Cleveland of Hart County.

Within a matter of hours after the deadly pit bull mauling, Adams’ 70-year-old grandmother was charged with several felonies: involuntary manslaughter; second-degree cruelty to a child; and second-degree murder. The Hartwell Police Department had previously cited the grandmother multiple times for maintaining disorderly animals.

On the day of the incident, a report on the investigation of the pit bull fatality shows that the grandmother had been outside with Adams. When she went to go back inside her home, the two pit bulls ran past her, knocking her down, and attacked the 20-month-old. The grandmother attempted to stop the attack and finally managed to put the pit bulls in the house. She allegedly transported the boy first to pick up his mother and then took him to an urgent care facility.

Further research shows that dogs belonging to the grandmother had a history of being a menace in the area.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is leading the investigation into Adams’ death. News is awaited on whether the mother will also be charged. Also, it is speculated that the grandmother’s decision not to call 9-1-1 but to pick up the child’s mother before going to a medical facility may play into charges against her. Adams was deceased when he arrived at the urgent care center.

As with every post on this website, we are only providing information in this post and do not make any allegation or assertion that anyone acted inappropriately or engaged in misconduct.

Posted on July 26th, 2017

At about 11 p.m. on July 20, 2017, in Fostoria, Ohio, 60-year-old Michael Parks put his pit bull, Mia, outside without a leash, and the result was deadly. According to police, Mia immediately ran toward a pit bull that was being walked on a leash. She viciously attacked the other dog. Parks attempted to stop the dog fight and was bitten several times. One of the dogs bit directly into the dialysis shunt that had recently been installed, which caused Parks to bleed profusely. Parks was transported to a nearby hospital, where he died a short time later.

Parks’ sister-in-law said the entire family was in shock because they had never known Mia to be anything but gentle. She said the dog was not vicious, and she never harmed the children in the family.

Keith Loreno, Fostoria Police Chief, said that it is always a mistake to interfere in a dog fight, no matter how much you love your dog. He said that, ultimately, dogs are animals and do what dogs naturally do. If you put your hands where dogs are fighting with their teeth, you can expect to suffer injuries.

The chief also pointed out that it is essential to keep dogs on a leash at all times. Dogs need to be kept under the control of their owner or someone else who can be responsible to take charge.

Parks is the 11th person to be killed as a result of a pit bull attack in the U.S. in 2017.

As with every post on this website, we are only providing information in this post and do not make any allegation or assertion that anyone acted inappropriately or engaged in misconduct.

Posted on July 12th, 2017

Stray Dogs (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On Tuesday, July 11, 2017, near Whitley City, Kentucky, a 79-year-old man was found dead outside a home not far from Highway 1651. The Kentucky State Police received a call about a body in the yard of a home and went to the scene. They were able to identify that Vinson W. Tucker, of Stearns, was deceased. A surveillance video was made available to the police by a nearby resident. According to police, the security video captured the scene when Tucker was attacked and killed by several dogs.

Police found all of the dogs shown in the video; all were near the scene of the fatal dog attack. All of the dogs involved have been euthanized. They were sent to a state facility for the purpose of being tested for rabies.

An autopsy is set to be performed on Tucker.

Detective Billy Correll made some statements with regard to Tucker’s death and the dog attack captured on surveillance video. He said that a review of the video suggests that the attack was completely unprovoked, and four dogs were involved.

Correll said Tucker was seeking to visit the property’s owner when he was attacked by the dogs. He also said that, according to witnesses, the dogs were strays that had been regularly seen roaming the neighborhood. This is reportedly the first time the dogs caused problems. Of course, since the incident occurred yesterday, it is still under investigation and more details may emerge.

As with every post on this website, we are only providing information in this post and do not make any allegation or assertion that anyone acted inappropriately or engaged in misconduct.

Posted on June 21st, 2017

A fatal dog attack occurred in Phoenix, Arizona, on June 9, 2017. According to investigators, 18-month-old Marcos Raya Jr. was in his home, and his grandmother was babysitting him. The woman was doing household work when she opened the home’s back door. When she did, the family’s pet, a Rottweiler, rushed into the house, grabbed the baby, and dragged him outside, brutally attacking him. The grandmother attempted to pull the dog off of the boy, but she was unable to. She called 9-1-1, and Phoenix police officers and fire officials went to the scene. They found that the Rottweiler was still actively engaging in the vicious attack on the baby. The attack stopped only after one of the police officers shot and injured the dog. The boy was quickly transported to a pediatric trauma hospital, and he was described as being in extremely critical condition. The baby died at the hospital.

Captain Rob McDade, a spokesperson for the Phoenix fire department, said the child was unable to recover because of the amount of dog bites he had. Fire officials also said the baby’s father was the dog’s owner, and for three years the Rottweiler had been the family pet.

Marcos Raya Jr was the 14th person in the U.S. to die from a dog attack in 2017, according to DogsBite.org, a website that is devoted to tracking dog attack fatalities. Nine of the 2017 victims were killed by pit bulls or pit bull mixes, which is a common statistic. The majority of people killed by dogs are killed by pit bulls year after year. Rottweilers are the second deadliest, though this year, the 18-month-old is the only fatal victim of a Rottweiler attack.

Posted on June 7th, 2017

A fatal pit bull attack occurred in Virginia Beach, Virginia, the night of May 31, 2017. The family had adopted the dog just hours before the horrific incident. Police officers were contacted about the dog attack at about 7:30 p.m. Upon arrival, they discovered that the victim was suffering from life-threatening injuries. She was quickly transported to a nearby hospital, where she underwent several surgeries. One of her arms had to be amputated. Sadly, she did not survive the surgeries; she died the following day.

The victim’s daughter said she was in the backyard with the newly adopted pit bull, and she removed the shock and canvas collars. She then realized she had been locked out of the house. When she called her mother, she had fallen and said she couldn’t get up. The daughter broke a window pane with a hammer to get into the home. She says the dog ran past her and began mauling her mother on her arms and then her abdomen and thighs. The daughter tried hitting the dog with the hammer and with a skillet, but the dog was not deterred from attacking. She later said the attack didn’t stop until the elderly woman in her 90s stopped screaming. At one point, the daughter was bitten on the arm.

The dog had previously been in a shelter and identified as a biter. He was rescued and ended up with this family. The new owner said that she had never seen anything like the gruesome attack.

This tragic incident is like so many others, when people are convinced that pit bulls can be perfectly safe for adoption only for disasters like this one to occur.